Gold Rush

“Gold!” is what the headlines read in 1897, starting the Klondike Gold Rush. Thousands, hoping to ease the woes of economic depression, sold farms, dropped businesses and boarded ships to follow their dreams north.

Local historians focus on individual achievements, buildings or events while often ignoring patterns of change or the relationship of those patterns to international and regional circumstances. Interestingly, an overview of public school history in our neighborhood reveals some of those patterns.

Perry and Kate Polson’s house at 103 Highland Drive is simply exceptional. The Polsons and their descendants owned and occupied the house that hovers high over Highland Drive’s intersection with First Avenue North from 1908 to 2004. In those 96 years, the family loved the house, and however they altered it, they never jeopardized the views to the city, Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains. Consequently, they left us one of the best preserved residences in the city whose new owners, Rosemary and Ken Willman, have done a major and meticulous restoration since buying the house in 2011. …Continue reading “Polson House: All in the (almost one) Family”→